These are not the Three Kings from Orient
on their camels – though it would be fitting for this season. Rather, it is
my favorite picture from a week in the Sahara, a time i was privileged to
share with seven inspiring Bedouins of the last generation still raised in
the desert, with seventeen camels (one white), and with a truly remarkable
group of twenty-five retreatants gathered by Cornelia Walterspiel. In the
vast expanse and silence of the sand dunes by day and under the deep desert
sky by night we exposed ourselves to the same Presence to which those Kings
were led by a star.

For me, this was the climax of a lecture
tour of almost five months. That i was still able to do these travels at my
age was possible thanks to the care and assistance of Anthony Chavez, my
young friend and helper. He brought me back in good health and high spirits,
thank G-d. Now, however, i am ready for a long retreat in the mountains of
Guatemala, for which my friend of many decades, Sister Mary Peter and her
community of Poor Clares, are offering me the opportunity. This will mean
celebrating Christmas this year in a different way, new to me: no mail,
except heart-mail; no presents, except intangible ones. At the end of this
year when two of my closest friends, Nancy Graeff and Norman Daly, left this
world, i need to focus on that Presence that is ever now, while we come and
fade away like shadows gliding over sand.

Deeply grateful to Patricia Carlson and
Margaret Wakeley, the pillars of our Gratefulness web-team, for giving me
this opportunity to be away by taking care of practical matters, i want to
thank all of you, too, for your understanding and silent support. May the
year 2009 bring us the long hoped-for turn in world affairs. May it bring
each one of you the joy of contributing to a better world by following the
star of your highest desire.